Legionnaires' disease linked to hot tub at Naperville fitness club

DuPage County health officials said Thursday they believe Legionnaires' disease bacteria linked to a hot tub at a Naperville fitness club has been contained.

Still, LA Fitness is continuing to clean and test the facility, and the hot tub likely will be closed for at least a month, officials said. The rest of the club remains open.

Two men came down with Legionnaires' disease, a form of pneumonia, in late October, according to Jason Gerwig, a spokesman for the DuPage County Health Department. He said both men are "medically stable," but would not elaborate, citing privacy laws.

After looking for a "common denominator," authorities were able to narrow it down to a hot tub at the Naperville LA Fitness at 1836 Freedom Drive, Gerwig said. Health officials closed down the hot tub Oct. 23, he said.

Gerwig said the test results confirming the bacteria that cause Legionnaires' came back Friday. The department did not send out a public notice because officials believe the problem was under control, he said.

"You want to be cautious to be sure you have all the facts, and once we got the test back last Friday, it was long enough for us to get rid of the problem and it wasn't a public health risk at all," he said.

The Health Department and the Illinois Department of Public Health tested other areas of the fitness center, including the pool and showers, and results were negative, according to Gerwig. No new cases have been reported.

"We're confident we were able to stop that pretty quickly, and LA Fitness was a good partner in that," he said.

An LA Fitness representative did not reply to requests for comment.

Gerwig said the hot tub will remained closed until cleaning and testing are complete, which will likely take another month.

Legionnaires' disease comes with symptoms like coughing, shortness of breath and chest pain, according to Dr. John Flaherty, professor of medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. People pick up the disease from bacteria in mist like that found in hot tubs and air-conditioning units on large buildings, he said. It is not spread through person-to-person contact.

"I think it's like a lot of things, it's out there and generally doesn't cause a problem," he said. "If you're immunocompromised in some way or get a big dose of it like in a hot tub where the temperature allows bacteria to multiply in higher concentrations … then it becomes more of a problem."

While most people recover fully with antibiotics, having other health conditions or being older can increase the likelihood the disease will become more serious, he said.

In summer 2012, three people died after contracting the disease at a downtown Chicago hotel. So far this year there have been 25 cases reported in DuPage County, the same amount in all of 2012, according to Gerwig.